Rahm Emanuel pushes gun background checks

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to change the national gun conversation from lawful gun owners to criminals who far too often get their hands on deadly weapons.

“There are sportsmen who don’t have Uzis [and are] not interested in having an AK-47,” said Emanuel at a panel discussion at the Center for American Progress on Monday. “The Brady Bill was about five-day waiting period to do a background check on criminal access. It wasn’t about the five days; it was about the criminal access. The Assault Weapons Ban then and today [focus on] the gun of choice of gangbangers. They weren’t purchasing this stuff for a Mother’s Day gift.”

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Emanuel, who was President Bill Clinton’s senior advisor during the passage of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban, said that if the type of guns and gun magazines most often used by criminals are targeted, everyone, from parents to policemen, will generally agree to the restriction.

“When you got 40 percent of the guns [unaccounted for] that’s not a loophole; that’s an exemption,” said Emanuel, referring to the percentage of guns that are sold without a proper background check, through private, online or illegal sales.

In doing so, he pointed out the importance of having national legislation to regulate the checks. As the mayor of a city gripped by gun violence, Emanuel knows all too well about how easy it is to have guns slip through the cracks.

“If you deal with [this loophole] the city of Chicago…the state of Illinois is only going to be as good as given what goes on in Indiana. So therefore we’re going to need places where you have national legislation because I can’t have Indiana…their laws undercutting what we’re trying to do in the city of Chicago,” he said.

According to Emanuel, a considerable amount of gun purchases happen in Indiana, but the guns themselves are found in Chicago. This phenomenon also occurs from rural/suburban to urban areas. That is why, he agreed, there is a need for a baseline on data collection.